Autumn

One of the good things about this time of year is the colours we see around us. This Virginia creeper covers a wall at Stinsford, near Dorchester. We went there recently to visit the grave where Thomas Hardy's heart was placed. The rest of him was cremated and placed in Poets' Corner at Westminster Abbey.

The village of Stinsford was Melstock in his novels. It's an interesting and pretty area.

As for our situation, Mike is continuing to make good progress after his spinal surgery, and all professionals we come across say how lucky he's been. Don't we know it?! He now looks the picture of health.

Two good weeks, and wild flowers in the garden

The last two weeks have been quite a change for us. No medical appointments for either of us! Wonderful, but next week we have to go back to the hospital for Mike's follow-up appointment after his spinal surgery. He's doing quite well but it will take time for full recovery.

Earlier in the year, Mike scattered some wild flower seeds along the side of the garden. This is one of the flowers from that sowing. It looked particularly attractive one morning after rain.

Just one of those days

Yesterday began in such a way that I went to check the calendar, in case it had suddenly moved on to Friday 13th. But no, it was just a bad start.
Firstly I found a young starling, upside down on the lawn, kicking its legs into the air in an effort to right itself. I managed to pick it up and place it on the side of the lawn on a bank where it may have had more shelter from the continuing rain. I was about to take Gizmo for a walk, and thought I'd build a shelter for the bird when I came back. I'd noticed a spot of blood on its tail feathers, but had no idea how badly injured it was. It was certainly soggy.
On returning from the walk, the bird had gone, so I can only assume it was just stunned with a minor injury. Thank goodness for that.
Next, since Mike has a bad back, and the physio has advised a hot water bottle three times a day, I filled this for him and he placed it against the chair. Unfortunately, it had developed a split which oozed water over the chair, and onto the new carpet below. Fortunately though, it had not scalded Mike. Hairdryer deployed, but I had little time as I had to get to the optician.
I just had time, I decided, to nip to our local Boots, and buy a new bottle. They had them in stock I was told, but couldn't sell anything to anyone as the pharmacist had not arrived, and would not do so until about 10 o'clock. Frustrating or what?
After that the day improved, everything else fitted into place, and I spent the afternoon at the Writers' Group, which we all enjoyed.

Not just any old olive tree

This may look like any other olive tree in Andalucia. To me however, it is a special tree, where, over eight years ago, an abandoned dog looked after her five puppies. One of those puppies became my dear Cara, now no longer in this world.

On a recent trip to Spain, I was able to find the tree again, and in my mind, saw again those wonderful puppies. The inside of the tree is now so large that it could accommodate even more puppies, but thankfully there were no dogs around. Just as well for me, as I could not have coped with importing them into England. It's a journey I shan't make again for sure, but I was delighted that I could see the tree.

U3A meetings

It's been an enjoyable week for U3A meetings. Wednesday the intermediate computing group had a guest speaker, and the whole meeting was given over to the subject of making your family tree via the net. Most illuminating, and as many of the people there have large families, and have started tracing their ancestors, it was of immense benefit to them.
This morning we were at the Meeting Points, the social gathering of anyone from any of the groups, plus visitors. The first half was dedicated to coffee, biscuits and chat plus any administration news. The second half was presented by a guest speaker, who showed photographs and told us about the weather in Swanage, past and present. Some great photographs, and wonderful stories from the past.

A couple of March outings

These old houses in Cerne Abbas took my fancy recently, not a straight line among them. We had a lovely visit to the area, with firstly a look at the Cerne giant! After a visit to the village of Cerne Abbas, we stopped on the way home at Nether Cerne to look at the churchyard. Very pretty.

Today we've been to the U3A Meeting Points social and enjoyed a talk and slides on the Galapagos Islands. Beautiful photos too.
Pleased with some progress on the writing front. Posted an article off to a magazine this morning - yes I do sometimes still use snail mail. Fingers crossed for a good result.

Could we have some good news?

The only place for murders is in fiction. Just at the moment though, all the news bulletins are full of reports of terrible violent incidents. Can everyone please stop killing each other. What has happened to people in this country? It seems that if a relationship is over, or somebody has offended another person, revenge has to be taken.

Does anyone else think there are more of these events than there ever were before? If so, what can we do to stop it? Any ideas please? Let's keep the killings for the pages of the books we read or write.